Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Bite-Sized Food for Kids

My dear children seem to be getting pickier and pickier about dinner, and I am constantly trying to throw different things into the mix so that we don't get too bored eating the same things all the time. And every once in a while, the girls decide that something they have enjoyed in the past, is now something they no longer will eat... That happened last night with tacos. I figured, tacos, "kid food" how can you go wrong? Yeah, no. No one was interested in those. My older daughter told me she no longer likes ground beef. I said, "Don't you like meatloaf?" (which we had just had last week and she seemed to enjoy) Yes. "You know that's ground beef, right?" Yes, but it tastes spicier, I like it.

Hmm... Spicier than tacos...? Well, who wants to argue! Anyway, at the point that I discovered their distaste for tacos, we were committed to having tacos (meat cooking, seasoning in the meat...). But I grabbed the "Scoops" tortilla chips that we had in the cupboard and for the girls, I made up mini taco cups -- "Scoops" chip with taco meat, shredded cheddar, and topped with a black olive slice. My girls LOVED these -- my older daughter ate the equivalent of what she would have in the past (you know, when she liked tacos... last month...) and my younger daughter actually ate more meat than she would have normally. I might have to try appetizer-like meals on some other things in the future!

I'd love to hear your ideas for getting your kids to eat!

2 comments:

Christine said...

Cute! Emma just discovered tacos at the in-laws house and I may have to try those here. She's so protein averse these days.....

Sometimes we do "fun plate" when I take all kinds of stuff out of the fridge and cut it into small pieces and serve it in a small muffin tin!

The Fine Art of Motherhood said...

How funny - both of my girls are protein averse lately too! Although K LOVES peanut butter!

I like that fun plate idea -- I saw that on someone else's blog and I bought a muffin tin specifically to do that for after school snacks for Liv!